Page 16 of Edinburgh Escape
“And change out of my pajamas,” she murmured with a twist of her lips.
“I don’t know. With the jacket, I thought you made an impressive fashion statement.” He winked, cupped her elbow and guided her back on board the train. “We can continue our discussion after we get to our next platform.”
“Damn right, we will,” she said, though she let him usher her to her cabin. She paused at the door, her brow dipping. “Where were you staying?”
He tipped his head toward the door beside hers.
Maggie pressed her lips together. “How did you manage to board without me knowing?”
“I was in super-stealth mode,” he said with a sly smile.
She huffed, scanned her card on the reader and pushed the door open. “Give me a second to change and pack.”
“Remember, you have less than five minutes before the train leaves.”
“I only need three,” she said and closed the door between them.
Callum ducked into his cabin, grabbed his backpack and slung it over his shoulder. He was back in the corridor a moment later, where he waited, spending the short time scrolling through the train schedule app and searching for an alternate route that would get them to Edinburgh quicker than going three hours back to London before heading north again for four more hours. He found a train leaving in fifteen minutes, purchased two tickets and noted the location of the platform in less than two minutes.
True to her word, Maggie emerged from her cabin at exactly three minutes, having exchanged her pajama shorts for jeans and her slippers for boots. She pushed her roller bag ahead of her and followed Callum off the train and onto the platform.
His gaze went immediately to where he’d left the man who’d attacked her.
He was gone.
“What’s wrong?” Maggie stepped up beside him, her brow lowering.
“I guess he lived,” Callum’s lips tightened. “Stay close to me.”
Maggie hooked her hand through the crook of Callum’s elbow. “Do you think he’ll attack again?”
“I don’t know, and I sure as hell don’t want to find out.” At three-thirty in the morning, he’d bet it hadn’t been a random attack. He also wondered whether the tree on the track had been the result of a natural disaster or sabotage. Either way, leaving the train might be the best option. Maggie wouldn’t be following her scheduled travel itinerary.
“Come on.” He took her empty hand. “I found a route that will get us to Edinburgh. It leaves in ten minutes. We need to get to the correct platform before the doors close.”
Maggie matched his pace as they descended the steps from the current platform, hurried along the central corridor and then back up to the one they needed. Once they’d boarded the train and found empty seats with a table between them, Callum stowed her suitcase on the shelf above them.
Maggie sat across from Callum, her eyes narrow, her jaw set in a firm line. “Okay, now that we’re back on track, tell me how you got roped into playing babysitter to a stranger?”
“I prefer the term bodyguard.”
She waved her hand dismissively. “Whatever.”
Callum could tell by the stubborn set of her chin she would accept nothing but the truth. “Hank and Sadie were concerned about you traveling alone to Scotland and about the new relatives you know nothing about.”
Maggie held his gaze for a long moment before her expression softened. “They’re my surrogate family and so very good to me, but I told them I didn’t want a bodyguard.”
“Considering what just happened on the other platform, they might have been right to assign one without your knowledge.”
“I wanted to prove to them, and more importantly to myself, that I was capable of traveling alone.” She sighed. “I guess I was wrong.”
“Not necessarily,” Callum leaned his elbows on the table. “Under different circumstances, you might have been fine. If that wasn’t a random attack, someone either has it in for you, or doesn’t want you to make it to Edinburgh.”
“Or both,” she said softly. “I just want to meet Ewan. I want to see if there’s any resemblance between me and my half-brother. I have my mother’s facial features and build, but…” she flicked a strand of her hair, “she had blond hair, not red. Her eyes were blue. Mine are green. I want to know where I came from and who I resemble. If nothing else, I’d like to know what medical issues I might have based on heredity.”
Her heartfelt words did little to convince Callum that she didn’t need him. “Have you considered that your unknown family might look at you as a threat?”
“Why? I’ve never threatened anyone. Ever.”
